<p>Is Groton a good school? I've heard the facilities are very old.</p>
<p>Groton is an excellent school. They had 1100 applications for 90 places this year and the best year in over 16 years for college matriculations based on the number of students getting into their first choice.
The school was founded in the early 1900 s if that is what you mean by old. But the facilities are superb. We just came back from revisit and our D will be attending next year. We all love it There is a difference between old and shabby. The school is awesome !!</p>
<p>Virtually all the schools discussed on this forum have outstanding facilities and resources that are far beyond what you would encounter in most other schools. Thankfully, much of this is evident from the websites and viewbooks. You can get a quick overview on [Boarding</a> School Review - College-Prep & Jr. Boarding Schools](<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com%5DBoarding”>http://www.boardingschoolreview.com) as well.</p>
<p>MDMomofTwo</p>
<p>Groton is a great school! But you are incorrect about the college matriculation this year. I have a 6th former at Groton, most of his friends are dissapointed with their acceptance to college. The school has excellent teachers, bright and engaged students, but serious grade deflation.</p>
<p>The average SAT scores are near 2100, but the avarage grade percent is an 84. Few, if any elite college will enroll a student with an unweighted GPA below 4.0. No one from Groton has a 4.0. The highest grade average for the senior 6th form was 93 percent.</p>
<p>The school is womderfull, the teachers and coaches are excellent. I am positive our child is well prepared for college. The college counseling department is terrible. Do not send your child to Groton with the idea it will help their chances for an elite college. It will hurt their chances.</p>
<p>The college counselor told us they have a great success rate of their students transfering from the accepted college to the Ivy League. He mentioned Groton kids always do well enough to transfer to their college of choice.</p>
<p>I had not thought our child, coming from Groton must go to his safety college to bring his grade average up to transfer to an elite college. The SAT’s scores were excellent.</p>
<p>We had hoped the colleges would take the repuation of Groton, mixed with the high SAT scores, togethor with the college counseling advocating for our child would have offset the average plus grades </p>
<p>The reputation of the school was not a help and the college counseling ofice hurt. Applications were not proof read, not sent out on time, very little guidance and plenty of mistakes all togethor.</p>
<p>We have bitter sweet thoughts about Groton. The experience for our child was awesome, but it really hurt his chances for an elite college</p>
<p>They’re old, yes, but they’ve been renovated pretty well. I just got back from revisit, and I personally loved it. I was assigned one guide, but all her friends came along, and I felt that I fit in perfectly.</p>
<p>Groton seems to be the strongest in its humanities.</p>
<p>On prepschool12: that actually scares me a bit. I’ve wanted to get into Harvard ever since I’ve been in elementary school, and I really thought Groton was great with college counseling.</p>
<p>YellowUbi</p>
<p>I am sorry to scare you. Groton is wonderfull, but do not attend thinking it will help you get to Harvard. The truth is, you would have a better chance getting to Harvard from an average public school than Groton.</p>
<p>Your SAT score should not change where you attend secondary school, but your GPA will suffer at Groton.</p>
<p>The Groton School will preach that you don’t send your child to Groton as a way to an elite college. Groton is excellent but the grade deflation will affect your transcripts and the college counseling department is weak.</p>
<p>Every child that attends Groton should be able to attend the college of their choice. Groton admits very bright, overachieving students. Matriculation to colleges last year was poor and this year is worse.</p>
<p>You will love your experience at Groton. You will mature intellectually, have great relationships with your teachers and lifetime friends. Most of the first year students in college will comment Groton is more difficult and a higher work load than college. If you can handle Groton, college will be easy.</p>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>I could not disagree more. Harvard is quite aware that Groton grades conservatively and goes for your SAT subject scores and AP results as well as your SAT.
Do you really think Harvard is not aware that PS grading is more lenient?
The truth is that Groton is not a guarantee of Harvard admission. But with it’s contacts at the AO and the excellent education you receive it’s your best shot. Not sure why you would be hating on Groton like that.
FYI Groton had it’s best matriculation last year In 16 years. And since it had sent 30% of it’s applicants to Ivies in the past 5 years I am thinking those stats will be excellent.
So again I would not send a child to Groton to guarantee anything. But the whole " you are better off in PS is nonsense.</p>
<p>@Prep I am sorry if your child did not make it to his college of choice but are you discussing the real list or your Childs perceptions? Would the school really lie about facts that can be verified ?
Also if you think PS is better you have not set foot in a public school recently. My eldest is a Junior in an excellent PS with a 5.16 weighted GPA. She is ranked # 16. Do you honestly think she is headed to Brown? No. She will never make it even though 16 out of 773 is awesome. The Valedictorian will be lucky to get in to her first choice Dartmouth. And the counsellors at her PS advocate UF and FSU for my child. She also has 8 APs She is lucky to get an appointment with a counsellor.
Your childs experience is theirs. I doubt they are headed to nowhere state. It may not be an Ivy but I am sure it is a school most PS kids would dearly love to get into.</p>
<p>sorry @prep did not see your original post from my iphone- just read it and could not alter the original reply</p>
<p>I’m a little skeptical of the matriculation metric (“best year in over 16 years for college matriculations based on the number of students getting into their first choice”). My guess is that this was driven in large part by the counselors being more effective at “helping” their students select less ambitious first choices.</p>
<p>ThunderingHerd is correct. The school ask you to lower your expectation of college admission. Most of my childs friends at Groton did not get to their school of choice. I am not sure how you got your data and I am not sure how Groton would determine the school of choice. I don’t hate Groton. I loved the school for my child. It was terrific in many ways, but college admision was not one.</p>
<p>MDMomoFtwo, In regards to your daughter. I do beleive she would get in to Brown if the rest of her application is stellar. Such as 2300 +SAT, 700+ Subject test, lots of AP classes w\ 4&5 scores and an excellent essays.</p>
<p>My child and her\his boyfriend\ girlfriend from a poor PS school applies to the same University. His SAT’s were 200 points higher than hers. The boyfriend\girlfriend did not have any special talents, but her GPA was a 4.8. He \ She was 7 out of 650. My child was denied, he \ she was accepted.</p>
<p>This really crushed our child. Our child knows how much harder She\ He worked than his\her partner. The partner would have never gotten in to Groton.</p>
<p>My child had all the above, but a grade average of 84%. The 84% grade average is the mean average at Groton. Very few students were higher, only 1 student was above a 90%, it was a 93%</p>
<p>The matriculation list is tainted. Those going to the IVY are “TIP” students(athletes, arts, special talent) or children of legacies that are big donors. Plenty of them at Groton.</p>
<p>It is very difficult for me to say anything negative about Groton. I only wished I had this knowledge before we made our decision. We went through the process, The grade defaltion is a big issue, as well at the poor college counseling department.</p>
<p>I had an older child attend a private day school. Much less test scores, but higher GPA. This child was accepted to the best schools. Her school had a strong college counselor department. My son at Groton was much qualified than my daughter. Groton is a superior school than her private school</p>
<p>Please review Groton’s college matriculation for the class of 2010. You will be surprised! Please ask the school for the grade disbursemnet for the class of 2010. You will be surprised. You can’t get this inormation from boarding school review or the website.</p>
<p>Ask the admision office for the college disbursemst acceptances for various colleges. You will be surprised! </p>
<p>Again, I love Groton. But I am not sure I would send my child there thinking it will help the college admissions.</p>
<p>Just want to add to prepschool12’s post that grade deflation (if that’s what it is) is everywhere at boarding school. Exeter’s a much bigger school, but only 31 out of 269 students graduated with an A- or A average (they don’t differentiate in the school profile and A is as high as you go–there’s no A+)–I think it’s safe to say that many of those students would have A or A+ averages at the average public school. While Ivy League’s doubtless know that a B at a top boarding school is an A elsewhere, they’re looking for diversity, and they’re not going to take every bs student, even if they’re ultimately more qualified than a ps student. </p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s grade inflation that’s rampant at other schools, rather than grade deflation at boarding school. Regardless, as prepschool12 points out, sending a child to a school like Groton to get him or her into an Ivy League–without any other hooks-- may not be the best plan. Sending them to Groton for a great high school education, though, is pretty much a guarantee.</p>
<p>Clasicalmama</p>
<p>Thank you saying it in much better words. We are very happy with Groton, but dissapointed with the college procees. That being said, I know our child did get a great education and experience. One that she\he will reflect on for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>Nothing is a guarantee. At the end of the day, colleges know about BS grade deflation, and yes, you still have to stay on top of the application process. Groton is not an automatic assumption your child will go to Harvard or Yale etc. There are other BS kids out there as we know. To me, its more about how will my child do once they are in college, not just get in. By the way, where is your child going to school, Prep?" You sound quite bitter about the experience. Also, don’t underestimate which colleges also offered better financial aid packages.</p>
<p>By the way, no need to be a debbie downer in regards to excited parents and students who have just returned from revisit days. Geesh!</p>
<p>I don’t agree, Glad–I think prep brings some much needed balance to the discussion–though I’d like to see this posted on one one the many Ivy or bust threads, rather than here.</p>
<p>Adding to prep’s debbie downer, which provides a valid perspective to the BS life: We have not gotten through college process yet at BS, but at D’s BS, the grading (which is very tough) is killer, it has really brought down our motivated D. Like many BS kids used to being top students, it is not just a simple and easy adjustment–trust me. It is impossible to have a teen understand the macro perspective, that is, that they are in a super select environment competing against other super select uberstudents and should be proud of grades less than As.</p>
<p>I know boarding schools are generally harder graders than day schools. However, when people complain about grade deflation at Groton, it is serious. Compare the graduating classes of SPS and Groton for 2010. I am sure the student bodies are comparable as far as academic excellence. However, out of a graduating class of 88, Groton had 3 summas and, I think (I will double check), 11 magnas for about 15% combined top honors. St. Paul’s, out of a class of 133, had 19 summas and 48 magnas for just over 50% top honors. I fear that until Groton acknowledges that it has a worse grade deflation than some of its peers, it will have a rough time with college placement. otherwise, it is an amazing school.</p>
<p>To me, 15% of the graduating class magna/summa seems more meaningful (and in-line with the words magna and summa) than 50%…</p>
<p>I suspect that the college placement issue is more an inevitable result of going to a small school with lots of connected kids than it is grade deflation. It stands to reason that if, say, 20 kids from Groton are applying to Harvard, Harvard is going to take just a handful–and chances are pretty good that within that 20, at Groton, more than a handful have parents who are alumns or a recruitable athletic talent–and I bet that matters more than whether the student is graduating magna cum laude.</p>
<p>[Boarding</a> School Stats : Matriculation Stats](<a href=“http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats]Boarding”>http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats)</p>
<p>Isn’t everything relative? Perhaps this year’s college placement will change Groton’s relative college placement strength, but it might not.</p>